Vegan Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Curd

Directions

Step 1

First preheat oven to 170°C/350°F, line a muffin tin so everything is ready to go once the batter is done.

Step 2

Zest the lemons and put to one side. Then grab your juicer and juice the lemons. Don’t forget to remove the pips

Step 3

Add the lemon juice to the measuring jug and add enough non-dairy milk to make 1 cup. Leave to one side for 10 minutes to curdle

Step 4

Put the flour, sugar, baking soda, zest and salt into a bowl and give it a good mix to evenly combine all the ingredients

Step 5

Now add the vanilla, lemon extract, melted margarine and milk mixture. Mix to combine. Don’t over mix it – just enough to make a nice batter

Step 6

Finally fill the cupcake liner 2/3 rds of the way up and pop into the hot oven. The cupcakes should take about 15 minutes to bake, but do test with a toothpick to make sure (it should come out clean).

Step 7

Now make the Curd

Step 8

Whisk the lemon juice, water and sugar together. Place in a large pot on a medium heat to melt the sugar

Step 9

Put the cornflour in a large bowl and 1/3 cup at a time whisk the liquid into the corn flour – once you’ve put in about 2/3rds of a cup of the liquid, and you’ve whisked to a lump free constancy, then you can add the cornflour mixture back into the pot. Whisk for a few minutes then turn the heat up a bit

Step 10

The mixture will bubble, change to a darker colour. Whisk to make sure no lumps form and let it bubble for about 5 minutes. Take off the heat – add in lemon zest, non-dairy cream and non-dairy margarine and whisk again. You should have a nice consistency for injecting into the lemon cupcakes. Once the curd cools it becomes more set so best to inject it while slightly warm. If you leave it to get cold, just add in a tablespoon of water and re whisk when you are ready to add it to the cupcakes.

Step 11

I got my flavour injector from Waitrose, but I’ve seen them everywhere including Robert Dyas. Fill the injector with the curd and puncture the cupcake in the middle. Fill with about ¼ ounce of curd. I find any more and the cupcakes crack at the top. This gives you a nice dollop of curd in the middle of the cupcake. Of course you also have a puncture hole to deal with! So dust with icing sugar or cover with buttercream – whichever you prefer. If you don’t have a flavour injector just cut out a cone of cupcake from the top, pop in a dollop of curd, and put the top back on. It looks lovely! See these ones